THE GIVER

By Monique Villen

Description

The book is an analysis of Lois Lowry’s work, The Giver, and Phillip Noyce’s movie (2014).
The novel recounts, in third person, the life of a boy named Jonas, who lives in a dystopian society of the near future that reminds us of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. This society has eliminated pain and strife by literally chemical means, a plan that has also removed emotional depth from human life. When children reach adolescence, they are assigned a profession according to their talents and skills. Jonas is selected to be the "Receiver of Memory", the person who stores all the memories of the past, in case the ruling oligarchy needs help in making decisions for which nobody has any more experience. Training with the "Giver" will be vital and traumatic so that Jonas can understand what society really is and how humanity has reached the stage it is in.